Providers of television-based entertainment are attempting to expand the range of services that they offer to subscribers in order to increase revenues. In addition to television content such as that found on conventional cable networks, some providers also offer interactive video services, such as video on demand (VOD). The provision of interactive video services is stimulating the further development of digital network technology, which in turn will enable providers to increase the number and kinds of video services offered to subscribers.
VOD allows users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television experience. VOD systems may support “streaming,” in which content is available to the subscriber while the video streams over the network, and/or “downloading,” in which the content is downloaded to a subscriber device, such as a set-top box, before the content is available to the subscriber.
In general, streaming systems need greater network bandwidth and thus more network resources. It is possible to provide streaming VOD services over a wide area network (WAN) to service a fairly large community or geographic area, however, the responsiveness to the subscriber may be reduced to unacceptable levels. For example, the establishment of a VOD session using conventional techniques typically requires 20 or more messages between VOD elements, once a subscriber signals his/her intention to establish a video on demand session. This in turn can induce session setup delays of a second or more. For certain VOD applications, such as network personal video recorder (NPVR), this delay is unacceptable.
In light of the above, what is needed is a system and method for the rapid establishment of a VOD session requested by a subscriber.